Playing H-265 Videos on Ubuntu 14.04.

While installing Ubuntu 14.04 if you check for installation of proprietary codecs  most videos could be played on Videos application but those having H-265 won't play. For playing them you need to install gstreamer1.0-libde265 as follows.
Open a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:strukturag/libde265
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gstreamer1.0-libde265

Enjoy!

Using antiX live usb on Lenovo Ideapad S100.

I am presently at Bhopal and the family has Lenovo Ideapad S100 Netbook with Windows 7. I had made usb stick with latest antiX-15 which I decided to try on this netbook.

On this Netbook pressing F12 on boot is supposed to bring Boot Menu but it did not work (may be because F12 is actually Fn+F11 and Fn key may not be working on boot).

Pressing F2 however brings the BIOS Set up. In BIOS Set up Boot Tag I could see the USB Stick but there is no provision to bring it up and make it first boot device.

But I could disable booting from Hard Disk (first boot device) by putting a "x" by pressing "x" key and save settings.

Then I could boot from USB and  now posting this on Iceweasel (Open Source Firefox) on antiX-15.

This machine has 2 GB RAM and antiX is very fast.

Review of antiX-15 USB persist on UEFI Secure Boot.

On 30th June 2015 new version of antiX called antiX-15 (Killah P) was released. I was impressed with the announcement "Want to run live on a box with UEFI bootloader? antiX can do this", and immediately wanted to test this.

I downloaded antiX-15-V_64-full.iso from souceforge. The announcement recommended Unetbbotin to make live usb but unfortunately Unetbootin crashed while selecting the iso file. I used dd command to copy the iso to usb but it allowed me to boot only in Legacy mode of BIOS.

I posted on antiX Forum and was advised to mount the iso and simply copy the contents (same like what I recommend for Ubuntu 14.04 for UEFI)

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/iso
sudo mount -o loop,ro  antiX-15-V_64-full.iso /mnt/iso
cp -a /mnt/iso/. /media/USB_mount_point/

 After selecting boot from usb in BIOS Boot Menu I could boot into antiX default Desktop with secure boot on since antiX has Microsoft signed kernel image.

Then I wanted to make the usb persistent. I used the cheat-code "persist=root!,home" in grub boot line but was getting blank screen.

I created the rootfs and homefs files and placed them in /antiX folder on usb even then it did not work:

dd if=/dev/zero of=rootfs bs=1M count=0 seek=1024
mkfs.ext4 -q -m 0 -O ^has_journal -F rootfs
dd if=/dev/zero of=homefs bs=1M count=0 seek=1024
mkfs.ext4 -q -m 0 -O ^has_journal -F homefs 

After struggling for a day I was told to change "gfxpayload=text" to "gfxpayload=keep" in grub.cfg and it worked.

Enjoying old Desktop days with Mate DE 1.8.1 on Debian 8.1

I recently installed Debian 8.1 in triple/quadruple boot with Windows8.1/Ubuntu14.04.2/Ubuntu15.04 on my Lenovo G50-45 Laptop.

Initially I installed LXDE Desktop but yesterday added Mate Desktop and now enjoying good old days of Gnome 2.

How to make back-light Brightness Fn keys work on LXDE.

Back-light Brightness is set on my Laptop by Fn+F11 (down) and Fn+F12 (up) keys. These keys worked on Ubuntu Unity Desktop but not on LXDE Desktop.

I tried xbacklight command but it did not work. Then after googling I discovered that xbacklight does not work on radeon driver.

Then I tried how it works on Ubuntu Unity Desktop and found that following command was executed by USER=root

/usr/lib/unity-settings-daemon/usd-backlight-helper --set-brightness 24

Since the command to be executed required root privileges I created two bash shell files on my desktop:File ~/home/Desktop/Brightness1

#! /bin/bash
# script to set the initial brightness on login
[ "$UID" -eq 0 ] || exec gksu bash "$0" "$@"
/usr/lib/unity-settings-daemon/usd-backlight-helper --set-brightness 12

File ~/home/Desktop/Brightness2

#! /bin/bash
# script to set the initial brightness on login
[ "$UID" -eq 0 ] || exec gksu bash "$0" "$@"
/usr/lib/unity-settings-daemon/usd-backlight-helper --set-brightness 24

I made the files executable and tested them. The script asked for sudo password and set the required brightness.

Then I inserted following Keycodes in ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml

<!-- Keybindings for LCD Backlight -->    <keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessDown">        # decrease screen brightness      <action name="Execute"><command>/home/user/Desktop/Brightness1</command></action>    </keybind>    <keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessUp">        # increase screen brightness      <action name="Execute"><command>/home/user/Desktop/Brightness2</command></action>    </keybind>

and it works by pressing Fn+F11 and Fn+F12 i.e. it asks for sudo password and sets the required brightness. 

How to run Debian with secure boot on.

I am having Lenovo G50-45 Laptop which had Windows 8.1 pre installed and I have installed Ubuntu 14.04 and 15.04 in triple boot with secure boot on.

Today I installed Debian 8.1 on another partition. For installing Debian I had to disable secure boot. After installation if I was booting Debian through its Boot Loader I had to disable the secure boot.

Later on I enabled secure boot and using Ubuntu 15.04 and updated the kernel. After update the grub got updated and it picked up the entry of Debian.

Now I could boot Debian through Ubuntu's Boot Loader without disabling secure boot.

NB: For those who are not familiar with UEFI. Each operating system has its own Boot Loader with entries of other operating systems in the Grub Menu.

Chromixium OS -- Chromebox plus Ubuntu.

I was always fascinated with any OS from Google or something like that. I had tried gOS Desktop in 2007 and Chromium OS on pendrive in 2009.

Google then launched Chrome OS only on Chromeboxes and they have significant market share today.

One developer has combined Ubuntu with Openbox, LXPanel and Google Applications to develops what he calls Chromixium OS.

I downloaded the Chromixium 64 Bit RC ISO, copied it to USB, added casper-rw file and persistent boot parameter in /boot/grub/grub.cfg before "quiet splash" in the menu entry and running it now on my Lenovo G50-45 Laptop. The OS has beautiful Desktop:

How to recover lost Grub Menu and Edit Menu entries.

Yesterday I installed Ubuntu 15.04 on USB stick and selected grub install on the USB to keep the Grub on Hard Disk intact. Even then I lost the Grub Menu on the Hard Disk and had to use the grub on the USB to boot into Ubuntu 14.04.2 installed on the hard disk.

For recovering Grub of menu I had to install Boot Repair through the ppa. After running Recommended Repair through Boot Repair I got the Grub Menu on the hard disk but with many unnecessary entries.

For removing the unwanted entries on Grub Menu I installed Grub Customizer and used it to remove the entries.

Boot Repair and Grub Customizer are excellent tools.

UEFI Bootable full install of Ubuntu 15.04 on 32 GB USB stick.

Yesterday I posted about Live persistent UEFI Bootable USB stick of Ubuntu 15.04. I could upgrade some packages, save wifi settings and documents and they were available on reboot but when I upgraded linux kernel I could not reboot on using persistent kernel boot parameter and even without this parameter.

Since the 32 GB USB stick could take full install I made full install of Ubuntu 15.04 on the stick with installing bootloader on the stick. The bootloader also picked the Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04.2 installations on the hard disk.

I think the days of persistent live linux on USB stick are over and full install is the way forward.

Live persistent UEFI Bootable USB stick of Ubuntu 15.04.

I had purchased one 32 GB USB stick to back up Windows 8.1 installation on my Lenovo G50-45 Laptop before installing Ubuntu 14.04 in dual boot. Since the dual boot is working well and Windows recovery partition already exists on the Laptop I decided to have Live persistent Ubuntu 15.04 on the stick.

I created 2 GB Fat32 partition, 4 GB ext4 partition with label casper-rw and another 4 GB ext4 home-rw partition on the USB stick. Then I used start up disk creator to put Ubuntu 15.04 on Fat32 partition.

After booting I found that persistence did not work on UEFI machines since there was a bug in live usb creator. The work around was to edit the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file and put "persistent" before "quiet splash" in the menuentry.

Now my wifi settings and documents are avaiable on reboot.

I will try updating the system later on. Upgrades to packages like Firefox worked but when I upgraded the linux kernel I could not boot with or even without persistent boot parameter.

Today I made full install of Ubuntu 15.04 on the USB stick.

My Karbonn Sparkle V Androidone received Lollipop 5.1.1 update.

We bought Google Chromecast.

After buying latest Android Phones and Tabs the next step was to buy Google Chromecast to connect theses devices to TV for media streaming but it required Wifi at home and our Landline phone and MTNL Broadband was in safe custody since 2010 when we went to Jharsuguda. I was not wiling to spend for Landline Phone and we experimented with Mobile Operators taking advantage of Mobile number portability. Finally we sattled for Idea after trying Reliance CDMA and Airtel. For internet Reliance GSM Data was working in the Tab.

For Broadband also I am experimenting with Tikona Brodband which is Wireless till the terrace of our flat where a CPE is installed from where it is wired to the Wifi router installed at suitable location in the home.

The Chromecast is plugged in the HDMI port of the TV and gets power either through USB port of the TV or mains. The Android Phone is used for Setting up the Chromecast to connect to the Wifi Router. After setting up the Cromecast is directly connected to the Wifi Router like other Android Devices and Laptops.

Now suppose you want to watch the Youtube video on your TV you first open the Video on the Phone/Tab or Crome Browser on the Laptop and connect the device to the Chromecast. After connecting the Youtube video directly plays on the TV.

You can also play the local media on your Android devices on the TV. For Laptop you can do it through Chrome Browser and its add-on extensions.

New Terminal Commands learnt.

Recently I learned some new Terminal commands. Following is the output of these command on my Lenovo G50-45 Laptop.

$ lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3 | grep 'in use'
    Kernel driver in use: radeon

 $ /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p
OpenGL vendor string:   X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD MULLINS
OpenGL version string:  3.0 Mesa 10.3.2

Not software rendered:    yes
Not blacklisted:          yes
GLX fbconfig:             yes
GLX texture from pixmap:  yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program:        yes
GL fragment program:      yes
GL vertex buffer object:  yes
GL framebuffer object:    yes
GL version is 1.4+:       yes

Unity 3D supported:       yes

 $ cat /etc/lsb-release; uname -a
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS"
Linux Lenovo-G50-45 3.16.0-37-generic #49~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 30 10:52:28 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 net
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter [10ec:b723]
    Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:b736]
    Kernel driver in use: rtl8723be
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 10)
    Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3812]
    Kernel driver in use: r8169

I knew the following command but now the second one to be used.

$ sudo fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xecf87c27

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1   976773167   488386583+  ee  GPT
Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

$ sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.8

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 976773168 sectors, 465.8 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): D8108174-FF68-4388-A994-3799AE5B6B2D
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 976773134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2029 sectors (1014.5 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048         2050047   1000.0 MiB  2700  Basic data partition
   2         2050048         2582527   260.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition
   3         2582528         4630527   1000.0 MiB  FFFF  Basic data partition
   4         4630528         4892671   128.0 MiB   0C01  Microsoft reserved part
   5         4892672       104552447   47.5 GiB    0700  Basic data partition
   6       104552448       733698047   300.0 GiB   0700  Basic data partition
   7       898043904       950472703   25.0 GiB    0700  Basic data partition
   8       950472704       976773119   12.5 GiB    2700  Basic data partition
   9       733698048       895946751   77.4 GiB    8300 
  10       895946752       898043903   1024.0 MiB  8200

How to make UEFI Bootable Ubuntu 15.04 USB stick on Windows 8.1?

Since many years we download the Ubuntu ISO and use the installed Ubuntu to make a Start up Disk from the ISO to install on the same or other machines. The Start up disk is a UEFI Bootable USB stick.

Today I faced a question on Ubuntuforums about how to make UEFI Bootable Ubuntu 15.04 USB stick on Windows 8.1. I am doing it now on My Lenovo G50-45 Laptop on Windows 8.1. I have the Ubuntu 15.04 ISO on the drive. I have downloaded and installed md5 Calculator Application from Windows Store. I have checked the md5sum of the ISO and it is same as in this file.

I have downloaded 7-Zip 9.38 .msi file from here.
I have a 2 GB USB stick formatted in FAT32 in the USB slot.
I have extracted the ISO on the USB stick using 7-Zip.
I right click on Start Button and select Disk Management and find that the USB drive is Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)
I right click on Start Button, select Power Options/Choose what the power button does and uncheck Fastboot (if exixts)
I reboot holding the shift key.
On reboot I select use a device and EFI USB device and get options on Grub Menu to run Ubuntu without install.

Ubuntu 14.04 on Lenovo Laptop G50-45 with Kernel 3.16.

As written on this post I installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS in dual boot with Windows 8.1 in December 2014.

The proprietary driver fglrx worked fine till I updated it to newer version on  12th April 2015. After the update I could not login and had to remove fglrx driver and come back to radeon.

Today I installed Kernel 3.16 (original kernel 3.13) through LTS Enablement Stack with following command:

sudo apt-get install --install-recommends linux-generic-lts-utopic xserver-xorg-lts-utopic libgl1-mesa-glx-lts-utopic libegl1-mesa-drivers-lts-utopic

 The open source driver radeon is working perfectly on Kernel 3.16

This Laptop has Realtek Wireless Network Adapter and its driver rtl8723be was causing disconnections and required reboot to connect again. This is solved by following command:

echo "options rtl8723be fwlps=0" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/rtl8723be.conf

Now Ubuntu 14.04 is working perfectly on this Laptop.

My Android one phone got Android Lollipop 5.1 update.

I bought Karbonn Sparkle Android one installed with Android Kitkat version 4.4.4 recently. Yesterday it got Android version 5.1 update which is called Lollipop.
If you click on Settings/About_phone/Android_version_5.1 number of times it opens Lollipop game (Screenshot below)

Installation of Ubuntu 14.04.1 in dual boot with Windows 8.1 on Lenovo Notepad G50-45

There are many visitors to this post through Google Search when they look for suitable Linux Distribution for Lenovo G50-45 but this is an old post and I recommend that anyone looking to install Ubuntu on this Laptop should go for Ubutu 16.04 LTS and not 14.04, however, if you are looking for instructions for Dual Boot with Windows you should read this post but install Ubuntu 16.04 LTS which has no issues.

Lenovo Notepad G50-45 Specifications:
Model Name 80E3
CPU AMD E1-6010 1.35G
RAM 2G
HDD 500 GB
Display 15.6" HD LED
OS Windows 8.1 WB EM

I downloaded 64 Bit Desktop ISO of Ubuntu 14.04.1from Ubuntu and used it to create USB Start up Disk from Ubuntu 12.04 on another machine.

After shutting down the Windows 8.1, I inserted the USB Start up Disk in USB port on the Lenovo Notepad and pressed the NOVO button as shown in the diagram below:

 The display brought the BIOS screen below:

 I selected Boot Menu and selected to Boot from USB, on Grub menu I selected Try Ubuntu and could boot into Live Ubuntu 14.04.

In Live Ubuntu every thing worked well except I could not mount the Windows NTFS partitions getting errors that Windows was not shutdown properly, although I had selected to shutdown while in Windows. After reading about shutdown of Windows 8.1 I decided to shutdown Windows completely by running following command:

Shutdown /s /t 0

Once again I started Ubuntu Live session as above and I could now mount the NTFS partitions. I could have resized NTFS partitions using gparted but decided to do it in Windows.

In Windows I tried to shrink C:/ partition but was not allowed to shrink more than 50%. Once again after reading on the net I did following settings in Windows as advised on this blog:

1.Disable Hibernation
2:Disable Paging in C Drive temporarily
3:Diable System protection in c Drive temporarily

After doing the above settings I could shrink the partition to the extent I desired (48 GB for Windows 8.1). I created new NTFS partition leaving 80 GB unused for Ubuntu installation.

Once again I started Ubuntu Live session and created one EXT4 and one SWAP partition to be used for Ubuntu. Then I decided to check whether Windows 8.1 is accepting these changes or not by booting into Windows. Everything was Ok in Windows. Windows had a Recovery partition on the hard disk which I could copy to a USB disk.

Finally I decided to install Ubuntu on the EXT4 partition. After the installation I could boot into Ubuntu as well as Windows from grub installed on MBR.

The Laptop had Radeon Display Driver and the default ati driver was not working properly. After installing proprietary fglrx driver it is ok. 

Income Tax efiling utility and DSC working on Ubuntu Linux.

I am using Linux since Sep 2004 and Ubuntu since July 2005. I was forced to use Windows for Bank of Baroda Netbanking and efiling of Income Tax Return.

Bank of Baroda changed in 2012 and I could use Chromium Browser with JRE 7 on Ubuntu.

Income Tax efiling utility worked only on Windows besides the Digital Signature upload and signing.

Since last two years my CA prepares the xml file of the Income Tax Return but last year I had to use Windows for uploading the xml file using Digital Signatures.

On going through Downloads on Income Tax efiling website I find that besides Excel utility there is Java utility which is having following instructions in Readme.txt
To run in LINUX
Change the ITR.sh file's permission, provide execution permission by executing the following command
> chmod 755 ITR.sh                
run using the command "sh ITR.sh" or ./ITR.sh


This year I find that I could use Firefox with latest JRE 7 on Ubuntu for uploading and signing the Digital Signatures (DSC).

Thanks to the demise of Windows XP, the Income Tax Department had to switch to latest JRE 7 which works on Windows 7/8 as well as Ubuntu 12.04.

How to deal with Excel (.xlsx) file not opening in Libreoffice?

Long back I discovered that Excel (.xlsx) file not opening in Libreoffice opens in Gnumeric.

Today I noticed that after I save the file opened in Gnumeric in the same format without making any changes it can be opened in Libreoffice.

Running Live Android Jelly Bean in Vitualbox on Ubuntu 12.04

Yesterday I downloaded Android-x86 4.3 20130725 live and installation iso from code.google.com and running now on my HP ProBook 4410s Laptop in Virtualbox as Live. Booting

and running the Browser.

Goodbye Ubuntu, Welcome AntiX Linux

Although I tried many Linux Distributions as evident from various posts on this blog, I have always used Ubuntu LTS version on my office Laptop and home desktop.

Now I have decided to say Goodbye to Ubuntu and selected AntiX Linux as my OS.

Day before yesterday, I downloaded the latest antiX iso from sourceforge
I installed Unetbootin on Ubuntu Software Centre and created boot-able USB Stick using Unetbootin and the iso image. Windows user can download the Windows exe file and install Unetbootin and create the USB stick.

Yesterday, I tried antiX using the USB stick. I could also create persistent file to save the settings etc.

On my office Laptop, I always keep two versions of Ubuntu in dual boot, the current LTS for use and either retain the old LTS or the latest version for testing. I had old LTS version 10.04, which I deleted and used the partition to install antiX after booting from USB stick.

After installation I added Icedove (which is same as Thunderbird) and copied xxxx.default and profile.ini files from hidden .thunderbird folder from Ubuntu to hidden icedove folder on antiX and I could see all previous mails and address books.

I added the Battery Monitor in Conky.

I have set up the Cannon Image Runner Printer.

I am using antiX now, goodbye Ubuntu.

Yesterday, I was trying to play music on dhingana.com but it was not playing. I found that Iceweasel is having Flashblock extension installed by default. I posted on antiX forum and got a reply. Accordingly, I added www.dhingana.com to whitelist in preferences of Flashblock extension and it works.

Running UZBL Browser on Android Phone

As described in this post I had installed Debian Squeeze LXDE Desktop on my Samsung Galaxy 5 Android Phone. Since the Iceweasel Browser was not very useful I installed UZBL Browser. I could use the Browser to surf. Following are screen-shots:

Access to files on Android Phone from Ubuntu laptop through SSH on Nautilus.

As described in the previous post I have installed Debian which is working side by side with the OS on the Android Phone. Since the Phone has only 186 MB RAM and most of it being used by the processes running on the Phone OS there is hardly anything left for the Debian LXDE. Unless I can manage to kill the unnecessary processes there is not much use of the Debian LXDE installation.

Off course I have found other uses of the Debian installation. I could start the SSH server through the Debian on the phone and could login from my Laptop and browse the files on Nautilus as follows:
Open Nautilus
Go/Location
ssh://Debian_user_on_phone@ipaddress

I could also copy files from the Phone to the laptop and vice versa.

You can see Folders like /bin /boot /etc /home etc which do not exist on the Android OS but have been mounted by the debian installation and when I exit Debian I have to unmount them through a single command. In fact there is nothing inside the /boot folder because the Debian is not controlling the Boot. The folders on Android OS root are as follows:
cache config data dev lib persist proc root sbin sdcard sqlite_stmt_journals sys system
and the files
default.prop EUROPA.rle init init.glodfish.rc init.qcom.rc init.qcom.sh init.rc

Installed Debian on Samsung Galaxy 5 (GT-I5503)

People generally look for installing other ROMs on their phones after getting root access but being Linux user I was looking for installing Linux Distribution without disturbing the original ROM. After googling I got this thread on xdadevelopers site. The idea of installing Debian using the original ROM appealed to me. Accordingly I downloaded the Debian Kit application by Sven-Ola Tuecke from Android Market. You can read about this application here.

Following are the Prerequisites which are easily met by even old Android phones (mine was bought in 2010):

• Root access to your Android device is required. No root, no Debian.
• Kernel supports mounting loop disks or you have at least an external SD card with a spare partition.
• Kernel supports the ext2, ext3, or ext4 file systems.
• CPU architecture is ARM (little endian) or i386 (ia-32 bit).
• 128 Mb of RAM or more, otherwise the launcher app may be killed during installation.
• 512 Mb of free space on SD card (either internal or external).
• Internet connection to download 100-500 Mb of software packages.
• Terminal app installed, alternatively ADB access.
• If you are a noob: command line input and text file editing is a must.

To make it easy the Debian Kit applications checks the above requirements and reports the suitability of the phone.

There are procedures to run Linux in chroot environment on Android Phones but the Debian Kit method works as follows:
The kit does not use the chroot command to make up a separate Debian environment (refer to schroot(1) for a similar technique). Instead, Debian subdirectories and files (such as /lib or /etc/resolv.conf) are added to the Android RAM-disk based file system with symlinks or bind-mounts. With this, e.g. you have access to newly mounted devices such as USB drives and the SD card. Also, can use Debian commands to compile packages that in turn can use a working chroot. This works, because a typical Android device has a file system (e.g. Libraries below /system/lib) that does not overlap the Debian file system (e.g. Libraries below /lib and /usr/lib). However, some files may overlap - which triggers a warning displayed if you start the deb script. For example, the Android /etc/hosts file is replaced by the Debian version while Debian is mounted. Which in turn may influence the inner working of your Android software stack. This is especially true with custom ROMs, because these typically add some Linux stuff that the ROM developer may miss. All changes are reverted if you issue the deb u command or simply by restarting your device.

After rooting my phone as described in previous post I have installed Andromized version of Debian on my phone and presently downloading andromized-lxde.

Following is the screenshot of my phone:

and on right side is the screen-shot running Bash shell on Debian and downloading required files for andromized-lxde desktop.

The internet speed is slow on the mobile using GPRS 2G and I will upload the image of andromized-lxde desktop later on when it gets installed on the phone.

Update on 26th July 2013
I am posting the screen shots of LXDE Desktop and the Leafpad running on it. When I tried Iceweasel the mobile crashed but it used to crash otherwise also before installing Debian.

After two days struggle successfully rooted my Samsung Galaxy 5 Android Phone.

After trying z4root and Superoneclick and getting frustrated I could successfully root my Samsung Galaxy 5 Phone running Android 2.1 using Universal Androot.

Now watch my blog! I am going to run Debian on this mobile phone.

I could get a blog post specifically for my mobile and do it.

How to resume an unresponsive Ubuntu Desktop.

I am using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS with 3.5.0 Kernel. Sometimes the Desktop becomes unresponsive to mouse clicks and key presses.

Earlier I use to press Ctrl+alt+F1 login to terminal and reboot.

Then I read somewhere that I can kill all processes and re-login. The suggested command was:

kill -9 -1

Today I had the opportunity to use this command and it worked. The manual describes this command as follows:
EXAMPLES
       kill -9 -1
              Kill all processes you can kill.

I could re-login to the Desktop without reboot.

Ubuntu OCR Solution.

Since I am transferred to NOIDA office of the company there is mostly office work for me except occasional visit to a power station.

I was looking for OCR solution to convert scanned PDF documents to text files. Initially I tried pdfocr and tesseract command line tools but not much success.

Then I converted one page online at ABBYY FineReader The site allowed me to convert 3 pages for free and afterwards I had to pay.

I discovered this page about Linux OCR solution. I downloaded the .deb file and installed on Ubuntu 12.04. It installed without any dependency problem since I had tesseract already installed.

Actually Lios is a GUI using cuneiform/tesseract engine in the background. I had already tried pdfocr which uses cuneiform and tesseract through command line and not hoping to get good results but Lios worked much better.

I used cuneiform engine for normal scanned page and tesseract engine if there was a table on the page. It takes time if there is a table but tesseract extracts the text correctly.

How to install Gnumeric 1.12.0 on Ubuntu from Debian Sid.

I have become fan of Gnumeric.

Earlier I was unable to open one .xlsx file (which I use to get daily as MIS) in Libre Office 3.5.4 but I could open it in Gnumeric. In fact I had submitted a bug for Libre Office on Launchpad.

As soon I knew about release of Libre Office 4.0 I installed it as indicated in this post. The file opens quickly in this version of Libre Office.

Afterwards I found that Excel file locked i.e. main sheet protected by password but I could open the lock in Gnumeric as indicated in this post.

As a fan of Gnumeric I decided to install the latest version and downloaded gnumeric_1.12.0-1_i386.deb from Debian Sid.

When I clicked on the .deb file Software Centre complained of following dependencies one by one:
libgsf-1-114_1.14.25-2_i386
libgsf-1-common_1.14.25-2_all
libgoffice-0.10-10-common_0.10.0-1_all
libgoffice-0.10-10_0.10.0-1_i386
gnumeric-common_1.12.0-1_all

I downloaded all the above packages from Debin Sid. Before installing Gnumeric 1.12, I had to remove installed gnumeric-common and gnumeric packages.

At last Software Centre complained broken cache but installed gnumeric on second attempt.

How to edit protected Excel Sheet using Gnuneric.

I am getting an MIS Report every day in Microsoft Excel. Although there is no need to change the contents of the file I clicked out of curiosity on one of the cells and found that I could not read the formula. When I right clicked on Sheet Tab I found the sheet protected with a password.

Since I use Libreoffice I searched about how to crack the password and found a couple of lengthy solutions.

I also keep Gnumeric on my machine. I opened the file in Gnumeric, right clicked on Sheet Tab, selected Manage Sheets and clicked on Lock icon. I was surprised to find that the lock opened without any password. After saving I could edit that file in Libreoffice.

I suppose this is possible in Gnumeric on Windows as well.

Gnumeric is a fantastic software.

Ubuntu 12.04.2 has new Linux Kernel.

Ubuntu 12.04.2 has been shipped with Linux Kernel 3.5.0-23. I have downloaded the iso for Ubuntu 12.04.2 and running it now from USB disk.
Typing uname -a in the terminal gives:
Linux ubuntu 3.5.0-23-generic #35~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 25 17:15:33 UTC 2013 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

I am having some issues on my Laptop running updated Ubuntu 12.04 like it hangs but pressing ctrl+alt+f1 opens a terminal in which I can reboot. Sometimes the Keyboard too does not work and I long press the power key.

I didn't find any issue running the Laptop on USB disk, therefore, I upgraded the kernel on installed Ubuntu 12.04. The command is:
sudo apt-get install linux-generic-lts-quantal xserver-xorg-lts-quantal

This also upgraded Xorg.

I am happy on Linux Kernel 3.5 and removed Linux Kernel 3.2 completely with headers.

You can read all about Kernel/LTS Enablement  stack on this page.

Install Libreoffice 4.0 on Ubuntu 12.04.

LibreOffice 4.0 was released on 7th Feb 2013.

Update: As on 4th March PPA for Libreoffice 4.0 is available. You can add the PPA by following command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/libreoffice-4-0
sudo apt-get update

Although I use LTS versions of Ubuntu, I upgrade the packages to latest by using relevant PPAs, however, I continued with Libreoofice 3.5 the version on Ubuntu 12.04.

Today I read about release of LibreOffice 4.0 and I decided to install since it may take sometime before PPA for Libreoffice 4.0 arrives for Ubuntu 12.04.

I downloaded the debs from Libreoffice.org.

Libreoffice 4.0 can be installed without removing the default Libreoffice 3.5 on Ubuntu 12.04 as per procedure on this page, however I removed the installed version of Libreoffice:
sudo apt-get purge libreoffice*

After opening the terminal in the directory containing the DEBS I installed Libreoffice 4.0
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
cd desktop-integration
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

After installing you can click on Dash and search for "libreoffice" and open Writer. After it is open you can lock the icon on the launcher. Similarly you can open Calc from Dash and lock the icon on the launcher.

On Kubuntu 12.04 or any other distribution you can run the following command to start Libreoffice 4.0
libreoffice4.0

It is working fine but Menu integration with Unity Desktop is not working and it is not working in Ubuntu 13.04 either.

You can chose Firefox Themes in Libreoofice 4.0. I have installed Underwater Dolphins Theme:

How to combine multiple .flv files into one

Sometimes you download .flv files in parts e.g. Presentation_Part1.flv Presentation_Part2.flv but you would like to see the whole presentation using one file. After searching I found this thread on Ubuntuforums.

The forum post suggests to convert the .flv files to .mp4 files by using the following command:
$ for f in *.flv; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vcodec copy -acodec copy "${f%.flv}.mp4"; done

By using the above command the 1.flv, 2.flv, 3.flv get converted to 1.mp4, 2.mp4, 3.mp4 etc.

The *.mp4 files get combined into test.mp4 by using following command:
$ MP4Box -add 1.mp4 -cat 2.mp4 -cat 3.mp4 -cat test.mp4

How to stop ongoing download from Android Market

I was trying to download an application from Android Market on Samsung Galaxy 5 and got stuck up. I went again to Android Market and selected the application and the download for second file of that application started and none was getting completed.

I searched on Google and was advised to force close the Download Manager from Settings/Applications/Manage_Applications but could not find the Download Manager.

While in Manage Applications I pressed the left key and selected Filter options "All". Then I could see the Download Manager. I forced closed the application and the download stopped.

Facebook, Tweeter Feeds on Ubuntu Desktop

Today I installed Ubuntu Unity gwibber lens:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwibber-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-gwibber

Then I found that Gwibber was not getting facebook and tweeter feeds. After I restarted Gwibber tweeter feeds worked but facebook did not:
killall gwibber-service
gwibber-service -do

Then I searched to get the solution for facebook feeds and found this page. I did what was told i.e. to modify the following file:
gksu gedit /usr/share/gwibber/plugins/facebook/__init__.py

Now I can get facebook and tweeter feeds on my desktop:

Extract winmail.dat on Ubuntu.

Today I received an email which mentioned an attachment but the attachment was winmail.dat file. After searching on the net I came to know about tnef utility. I installed it with command:
sudo apt-get install tnef

I downloaded the attachment on desktop and extracted it as follows:
cd Desktop
tnef winmail.dat

I found the Excel file attached by the sender on my desktop.

Using Tata Photon+ on Ubuntu 12.04

The Huawei modem model EC1260 supplied by Tata Photon is detected automatically by the Network Manager in Ubuntu 12.04 as New Mobile Broadband connection after you wait for one to two minutes. You need to choose country as India, and service provider as Tata Photon+. In addition after setting up you need to edit the connection and write username and password as internet.

Installing Ubuntu on hard disk having bad sectors

Today I was approached for installation of Ubuntu on a Laptop on which the hard disk had many bad sectors. We booted the machine with Ubuntu start up USB disk and started checking the 320 GB hard disk with badblocks command. Then we found that it may take several hours to check the hard drive since it had many many badblocks. We used gparted to make two 20 GB partitions at the beginning of the drive and found that both partitions had bad blocks. We interrupted the command with Ctrl+C if bad block was found. We made 20 GB partition after 100 GB and interrupted the badblocks command because bad block was found. Then we made 20 GB partition after 200 GB and no bad block was found. We decided to install Ubuntu on that EXT4 partition having no bad blocks. We made 200 GB NTFS partition at the beginning of the drive. Following are the screen-shots.

After completing the above operation I thought why not check my Laptop Hard Disk for bad sectors. I booted with the start up disk and used badblocks command to check two ext4 partitions having Ubuntu 10.04 and Ubuntu 12.04 and NTFS partition having Windows XP and found no bad blocks. Following is the screen-shot.

Backing up Thunderbird mails on Company's server.

I use Ubuntu Linux on my office Laptop and download mails in Thunderbird. IT Department of every company dislike Linux users and find out ways to prevent them or complain to top management that they have this or that problem due to Linux user. Generally I am able to deal with such complaints.

I am working at Jharsuguda for over two and half years now and there are more than 10000 emails in my inbox and 1000 emails in the sent box. IT Department complained that it is not possible to back up my mails since they are doing back ups through Outlook Express in .pst format.

I installed Import/Export tools on Thunderbird and found that either I could export in .mbox format in one single file or individual mails in .eml format without attachments.

I proposed that Thunderbird on Windows could import the .mbox file but IT Department did not agree.

Then I found mbox2xml converter and told them that the IT Department could convert the mbox file into xml and read it directly in the browser but I had to do that conversion for them and convince that the mail was backed up in usable format.

Revisiting Ubuntu installation on Windows Desktop

I carry a boot-able pen-drive with Ubuntu so that it can be used for quick installation on Desktops/Laptops whose owners permit me to do so.

Yesterday I found a Desktop in Delhi where previous installation of Ubuntu done by me using Live CD was wiped out due to reformatting of hard disk. I tried booting with pendrive after changing the first boot device to USB-HDD, USB-FDD, USB-ZIP etc but could not boot. I will investigate the problem some other day.

Then I decided to download Ubuntu 12.04.1 iso and burn a CD. For cheking md5sum I downloaded WinMD5Sum   The iso failed in md5sum check. Then I downloaded Free Download Manager to download the iso and the iso passed the md5sum check. For burning the iso on CD I downloaded Infra Recorder. After making Live CD I could install Ubuntu 12.04.1 on the Desktop.

This post is just to record what software is needed on Windows ( WinMD5Sum, Free Download Manager, Infra Recorder) to install Ubuntu on Windows machine.

Search News, Wikipedia and many other things directly from Ubuntu Desktop

Although I have installed Ubuntu 12.04 for last two months I could not use various lenses and search the web directly from Ubuntu Desktop.

Today I installed Wikipedia Lens which was available in Ubuntu Software Centre and could search for God Particle Article on Wikipedia as seen in the screen shot below:

Then I decided to use the Unity News Lens and installed it as follow
 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
 sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-lens-news

After installing I logged out and logged in

Following is the screen shot:

Screen Shots of Micromax USB Modem on Ubuntu 12.04

I had posted about using Micromax USB Modem on Ubuntu 12.04 here.One visitor requested me to post the screen shots. Here they are:

The above screen shot shows that there is no network connection.

The above screen shot shows the commands to be typed in the terminal. After this you insert the modem in USB slot.

The above screen shot shows that the modem has been working. Please note that Network Manager is not showing anything so far. You need to wait upto 3 minutes till it shows on Network Manager

The above screen shot shows that the Network Manager has detected a new Mobile Broadband connection. Please note the clock time.

Copying Thunderbird Mails and Address Book from Ubuntu 10.04 to 12.04

I am running Ubuntu 10.04 on my office Laptop since April 2010. When Ubuntu 12.04 came I considered distribution upgrade but decided not to do it since I was running latest versions of Libreofice, Thunderbird, Firefox using Launchpad PPAs. My only problem was to transfer the Mails and Address Book in Thunderbird. The other problem was to resize the big NTFS partition to install Ubuntu 12.04 on a new partition. I solved the NTFS resize problem as described on this post.

For copying Mails and Address Book I copied  xxxxxxxx.default folder and profiles.ini file from/to .thunderbird folder from Ubuntu 10.04 to 12.04 and it works perfectly.

Now I am using Ubuntu 12.04 on my office Laptop.

Resizing NTFS Partition using gparted and chkdsk

Today I installed Ubuntu 12.04 on a Laptop which had Windows XP and Ubuntu 10.04 in dual boot and large extended NTFS partition on E:/ drive. First I tried to resize the NTFS partition using gparted of Ubuntu 10.04 but it failed and also made the NTFS partition unmountable on Ubuntu. I corrected the partition using testdisk and it became mountable. Then I decided to try gparted on Ubuntu 12.04 and successfully resize the partition as follows: I inserted the usb Startup disk into usb port of the Laptop and booted into Ubuntu 12.04. Clicked on top left icon called Dash Home and searched for gparted and clicked on the gparted icon. I right clicked on the NTFS partition and selected check. As expected the gparted produced following error: GParted 0.11.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid Libparted 2.3 Check and repair file system (ntfs) on /dev/sda5  00:00:07    ( ERROR )      calibrate /dev/sda5  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )      path: /dev/sda5 start: 204,796,683 end: 623,032,829 size: 418,236,147 (199.43 GiB) check file system on /dev/sda5 for errors and (if possible) fix them  00:00:07    ( ERROR )      ntfsresize -P -i -f -v /dev/sda5      ntfsresize v2012.1.15AR.1 (libntfs-3g) Device name : /dev/sda5 NTFS volume version: 3.1 Cluster size : 4096 bytes Current volume size: 214136902144 bytes (214137 MB) Current device size: 214136907264 bytes (214137 MB) Checking for bad sectors ... Checking filesystem consistency ... Accounting clusters ... Cluster accounting failed at 12408217 (0xbd5599): extra cluster in $Bitmap Cluster accounting failed at 12408218 (0xbd559a): extra cluster in $Bitmap Cluster accounting failed at 12408219 (0xbd559b): extra cluster in $Bitmap

Filesystem check failed! Totally 2576 cluster accounting mismatches. ERROR: NTFS is inconsistent. Run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot it TWICE! The usage of the /f parameter is very IMPORTANT! No modification was and will be made to NTFS by this software until it gets repaired. Then I rebooted into Windows XP and opened command prompt >chkdsk E: /f The type of the file system is NTFS. CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)... File verification completed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)... Index verification completed. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)... Security descriptor verification completed. CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap. Windows has made corrections to the file system. 209118068 KB total disk space. 51761464 KB in 45713 files. 19896 KB in 7661 indexes. 0 KB in bad sectors. 131132 KB in use by the system. 65536 KB occupied by the log file. 157205576 KB available on disk. 4096 bytes in each allocation unit. 52279517 total allocation units on disk. 39301394 allocation units available on disk. Then I  rebooted twice in Windows XP. Once again I booted into Ubuntu 12.04 using usb startup disk and started gparted, right clicked on the partition and selected check. This time gparted reported as follows: GParted 0.11.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid Libparted 2.3 Check and repair file system (ntfs) on /dev/sda5    ( SUCCESS )      calibrate /dev/sda5  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )      path: /dev/sda5 start: 204,796,683 end: 623,032,829 size: 418,236,147 (199.43 GiB) check file system on /dev/sda5 for errors and (if possible) fix them    ( SUCCESS )      ntfsresize -P -i -f -v /dev/sda5      ntfsresize v2012.1.15AR.1 (libntfs-3g) Device name : /dev/sda5 NTFS volume version: 3.1 Cluster size : 4096 bytes Current volume size: 214136902144 bytes (214137 MB) Current device size: 214136907264 bytes (214137 MB) Checking for bad sectors ... Checking filesystem consistency ... Accounting clusters ... Space in use : 53159 MB (24.8%) Collecting resizing constraints ... Estimating smallest shrunken size supported ... File feature Last used at By inode $MFT : 162676 MB 0 Multi-Record : 170638 MB 27119 $MFTMirr : 107604 MB 1 Compressed : 42052 MB 30556 Ordinary : 168508 MB 26979 You might resize at 53158412288 bytes or 53159 MB (freeing 160978 MB). Please make a test run using both the -n and -s options before real resizing! grow file system to fill the partition  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )      run simulation  00:00:00    ( SUCCESS )      ntfsresize -P --force --force /dev/sda5 --no-action      ntfsresize v2012.1.15AR.1 (libntfs-3g) Device name : /dev/sda5 NTFS volume version: 3.1 Cluster size : 4096 bytes Current volume size: 214136902144 bytes (214137 MB) Current device size: 214136907264 bytes (214137 MB) New volume size : 214136902144 bytes (214137 MB) Nothing to do: NTFS volume size is already OK. real resize    ( ERROR )      ntfsresize -P --force --force /dev/sda5      ntfsresize v2012.1.15AR.1 (libntfs-3g) Device name : /dev/sda5 NTFS volume version: 3.1 Cluster size : 4096 bytes Current volume size: 214136902144 bytes (214137 MB) Current device size: 214136907264 bytes (214137 MB) New volume size : 214136902144 bytes (214137 MB) Nothing to do: NTFS volume size is already OK. Finally I could resize the NTFS partition and make a new ext4 partition to install Ubuntu 12.04.

Using Micromax 3G Modem on Ubuntu 12.04

In Sep 2010 I had written about using Micromax 3G modem on Ubuntu 10.04. Since then I could not find time to see whether Ubuntu 10.11, 11.04 and 11.10 has any changes wrt modeswitch etc. In Ubuntu 12.04 the newest version of usb-modeswitch is already installed by default and  mode switching takes place in the background.

Today I downloaded the iso of Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop iso and made a boot-able pen-drive and wanted to use the Micromax 3G Modem. Before implementing the procedure in my last post I searched and found following procedure on askubuntu:

Open up a terminal from Applications -> Accessories. Type:

sudo gedit /etc/modules

At the bottom of the file, make two new lines, like this:

usbserial
option

Then close the editor program and save it. Reboot the computer and hopefully you’ll be right from now on!

Since I was running from usb stick I used the following commands to load these modules:
sudo modprobe usbserial
sudo modprobe option

Then I inserted Micromax usb modem and configured a new Mobile Broadband connection through the Network Manager.

Although the Network Manager had not detected the insertion of modem but after configuring the connection it worked.

If you have installed Ubuntu 12.04 and want to use this modem on regular basis you can edit /etc/modules file as per the procedure on askubuntu so that the modules would be loaded on boot.

If you want to occasionally use this modem you can use my procedure i.e. to load the modules before inserting the modem.

NB: Network Manager takes about 3 minutes to detect the modem on LiveCD/USB or even installed Ubuntu 12.04. You need to have some patience after inserting the modem. In addition the modules 'usbserial' and 'option' need to be loaded before insertion as described above. In Ubuntu 11.10 this Modem shows up in Network Manager after a few minutes without giving any command.

One visitor wanted me to post screen shots. Here they are.

Run Latest Ubuntu from USB stick.

My favorite Linux Distribution Ubuntu Linux has come long way in last 7 years. Today I decided to download the latest version 11.10 and try it on USB stick since I am not yet prepared to upgrade the LTS version 10.04. Downloading and making a USB stick has become so simple. Here is how to do it:

Go to download page.
Select Download options:
Ubuntu 11.10 Latest Version
32 or 64 bit
Click on Start Download
After download check the iso with following command:
sha256sum ubuntu-11.10-dektop-i386.iso
sha256sums are available in this file

Following procedures assumes that you are running Windows
Go to pendrivelinux.com
Download Universal USB installer
Insert USB stick
Click on Universal USB installer exe file
Accept TOS
Select Ubuntu 11.10
Click on Browse button and select ubuntu-11.10-dektop-i386.iso
Select the drive for USB stick and check to format if necessary.
Select persistent file size
Click on Create

The installation process is going to take time. Relax.

After installation reboot with USB stick (I hope you know how to boot your machine with USB) and you get the new Ubuntu on your screen.

I did all the above steps and here is the screenshot:

I could also setup network connection using Bluetooth through my Samsung Galaxy 5 using the GUI.


I love new Ubuntu 11.10 but I need to learn using Unity Desktop which I am going to finish today.

Importing ICICI Bank and other Banks account file in GnuCash

Update: This is four years old. A new post on same topic may be found here.

I wrote in the previous post that I would write about how to import Indian Banks Transaction files in GnuCash accounting software.

ICICI Bank offers download of Bank Transactions file in MS Money Format (.qif) and GnuCash accepts importing this file format but when you try to import it may fail and if it succeeds the import wizard will ask many questions. Open Office has a macro CALC2QIF which imports .qif file. When you import the file you will see that the Category column has entries like TCI, TBI, TIP etc and while GnuCash can import the transactions into the Bank Account it does not understand where to post the corresponding debit/credit entry into the other account. Let us consider one example.

Suppose you have received payment from your Customer there are two entries to be made. One in the Bank Account and the other in Accounts Receivable but the file downloaded from ICICI Bank shows TBI on the Category. You need to change TBI to Accounts Receivables. Similarly you should write the names of other accounts like Cash etc in the Category column. If you can't decide the account name you can write Imbalance against such entries in the Category and GnuCash will show them as imbalance till you change them.

After you change the entries in Category column you should select the cells and click on Save to QIF, clear the default fields and select them again in the order they are displaced i.e. Date, Amount, Check Number, Payee, Memo, Category and Sub-Category, select the destination for QIF output file and click on Convert.

Now you can import this file easily in GnuCash.

Using GnuCash for maintaining books of accounts of small business in India

For the last two months I was working on suitability of GnuCash for maintaining books of accounts of small businesses of India. When you start GnuCash for the first it offers to setup the accounts. In Business Accounts Category it creates most accounts necessary for a Business excluding Fixed Assets. You can also select the Fixed Assets category which creates three accounts House, Other Asset and Vehicle. You can delete the accounts (e.g. House) you don't need for your Business later on. After you select the accounts the next screen offers to change the name of accounts. This is necessary because the default names are suitable for a Business in USA e.g. there is an account called "Federal" under Taxes which you can change to "Income Tax" and there is an account called "Checking Account" which you can change to "Current Account" and so on. You should also have the amounts of Opening Balances ready with you for Fixed and Current assets while setting up.

After setting up the accounts with Opening Balances you can delete the accounts (especially there are too many Expenses accounts) not relevant for your Business and also add the accounts which you need but not present (e.g. you can create Computer, Office Furniture etc under Fixed Assets.

I found a site explaining the setup nicely and there is no need to write the details here.There are more details on this page.

The next step is to import the Data from Bank Accounts. Some Banks (e.g. ICICI Bank) offer to download the statement in MS Money Format (.qif) which can be imported directly into GnuCash. I am going to write another post for importing the data from Bank Statements. If you do this correctly all Bank transactions get posted in double entry system in Books of Accounts and saves lot of time.

How to get new Indian Rupee Symbol ₹ on Keyboard shortcut on Debian or Ubuntu?

The new Indian Rupee Symbol ₹ exists for more than one year now. There are various posts on the Internet describing how to type it. The symbol has been included in UTF-8 as U+20B9. Most fonts now support this character therefore you don't need to install any special font for typing it.

You already know how to type $ sign (by pressing shift +4). There is a new Keyboard Layout "India English with Rupee Sign" in new xkb-data file but the stable Linux Distributions have not updated their files.


If you want to get this Keyboard Layout on Debian or Ubuntu download the latest xkb-data file. It is available on Debian Sid as xkb-data (2.1-2)  You can download and install it on Debian or Ubuntu.

After installation you need to select the Keyboad Layout "India English with Rupee Sign". Now you can type ₹ by using Right Alt +4 key combination.

Update: Ubuntu 12.04 has this Keyboard Layout Emglish (India, with Rupee sign).

Using Thunderbird to down load mail using POP3 server and importing address book from Evolution

I have been facing some issues using Evolution mail client and decided to switch to Thunderbird. When I opened the program for the first time it asked the email ID and password and communicated with server and configured IMAP server automatically. When I tried to change to POP3 server there was no option anywhere in the settings.

After Googling a bit I found couple of solutions. The one I used is as follows:

I deleted the account setup initially and asked Thunderbird to setup the account once again. While it was communicating with the server I interrupted the process and it offered me to edit the setup with a drop down for the server type. I selected POP and could setup POP3 server.

I faced another problem importing the Address Book. Evolution saves the Address Book only in VCard format and Thunderbird does not import from this format. I used this on-line utility to convert VCard (.vcf) into LDIF (.ldif) format and imported the converted LDIF file.

Deleting sms messages on Android Phone

I am getting sms messages daily from 2 numbers. Android phone was forming a thread of all the sms messages. In default Android messaging system it was not possible to delete one or some of the messages in a thread and if I wanted to delete the complete thread was getting deleted including the newest messages.

I searched on Market with "sms" and got number of applications. I downloaded HandsentSMS. Now with this application I can select Batch mode and then select the messages I want to delete and delete them

Moving/Copying Virtual hard disk for Virtualbox

As described on this post I installed Windows XP on Virtualbox on Ubuntu 10.04. For creating virtual hard drive I used the default settings of Virtualbox which created it in hidden .virtualbox/harddisks folder on home.

Since I did not think about running Windows inside Ubuntu the /home was not very large. After a few months Ubuntu started complaining about low disk space and when I examined it the largest space was occupied by the virtual hard drive.

I copied the Windows.vdi file on another partition and tried to attach it but Virtualbox complained of same uuid already registered and refused to attach the copy.

Then I opened the terminal and typed following command after changing directory to that partition.
VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid Windows.vdi

The uuid was changed and I could attach and use the copy of .vdi file.

After testing that everything was fine I deleted the original .vdi file.

Now I have enough space on home and Windows XP running in Virtualbox as before.